Friday, November 2, 2012

Lebbeus Woods - Death

I have been intrigued with Lebbeus Woods and his complex design and artwork for years. It was in grad school that I first learned of his work. I had been following his blog, which he had recently taken a permanent break from. I wondered what he was dealing with.
While Lebbeus had only a few built works (his art installations the exception) he had a big influence on the architectural underground.
His drawings are futuristic, post apocalyptic, but also beautiful and well crafted. He challenged ideas of war, natural disasters, poverty and human survival.
His blog reminisced about his past work, but always provoked a current discussion about architecture and art.

I like that he was a sort of architectural vigilante who would use architecture as a way challenge conventional thinking about world issues. His work was often dark, but also optimistic and inspiring.
He was a very unique voice in a cacophony of architectural rhetoric and I will miss him.